The present invention relates in general to photographic reproduction of a plurality of original copies, and in particular to a device for singling out non-reproducible original copies from a succession of copies arranged according to respective orders into a continuous band which defines marks indicative of the beginning of an order, of the end of an order, and of the number of copies in respective orders, or the number of reproductions for being processed in a photographic printer.
Devices of this kind are known in photographic copying machines, for example from the German published patent applications 2,753,632 and from U.S. Pat. No. 4,379,632 assigned to the same assignee. The purpose of this prior-art type of device is to recognize non-reproducible negatives and to eliminate them from the copying process. Such non-reproducible negatives are for example unsharp or blurred, underexposed or overexposed, or unintentionally exposed negatives. The disadvantage of the prior-art devices is their susceptibility to indicate also reproducible negatives as unsuitable ones, most frequently in the detection of sharpness, thus eliminating the latter from printing. As a consequence, the customer reclaims his order and becomes dissatisfied with the service. In addition, in 135-films the so-called skip exposure frames at the beginning of the film strip, which upon insertion of the film are taken by amateur photographers, should not be copied.